Growing up in a city, the echoes of caution — “Don’t step out late at night,” “Get home before it gets dark,” “Don’t go out alone” — are familiar refrains for many girls. The expectation was that, as adults, these restrictions would dissolve. Unfortunately, the reality often falls short. Recently under the UP government’s Safe City project, private coaching institutes have been restricted from allowing girls in “late-evening classes” to ensure their security. While the intention is to create a safer environment, questions arise about the effectiveness of imposing restrictions on girls’ mobilit ..read more

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated annually on March 8th and is a time to recognize and commemorate the many struggles and wins of women. The day has its roots in struggles for recognition of women’s labor, rights, and value. Over the years, IWD has become a global movement that not only recognizes the achievements of women but also calls for action toward gender equality. This year’s theme, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’, with the hashtag #EmbraceEquity, aims to bring attention to the digital inequalities that women face along with the inequities that exi ..read more

As Urban October comes to an end, Safetipin would like to celebrate World Cities Day with our #sheRISES framework. Through the month, we have been unpacking each letter in the hashtag #sheRISES along with visuals of what women-friendly cities would look like. Over the past years of working in cities, this framework represents how gender transformation can take place in our cities. The poster aims to bring to life these principles through the everyday life of the character of a young woman as she traverses through the city. Cities are spaces for work and employment, but they can also be spaces ..read more

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own” -Audra Lorde, 1981 In 1991, scholar Elizabeth A. Kissling called street harassment a form of sexual terrorism as one never knows when it can happen—or how far it may escalate. [1] According to Stop Street Harassment, sexual harassment in public spaces can extend to all kinds of physical, verbal and non –verbal actions intended to hurt and harm, with the perpetrator often being a stranger and the incident taking place publicly without consent. [2] It becomes more complex when considering intersectio ..read more

The International Transport Forum held yearly in Leipzig is an opportunity for stakeholders in the transport sector to congregate, share programs and innovations, discuss challenges and find solutions to the pressing problems. This year ITF took place in person after three years, having last met in 2019 before COVID 19. The theme of ITF in some ways reflected this new reality – Transport for Inclusive Societies. Among the many impacts of COVID 19 on the world, an important one has been the recognition that inequality and exclusionary policies have resulted in further marginalisation of the mor ..read more

Photo Credit: Sourav Karmakar (Top 8 shortlist, Photo/Illustration Competition)   Honourable Mention: “Re:Imagine, Re-Design, Re-Claim” Essay  Competition for #UrbanOctober2021 Theme: Beyond the Binary: Queer interactions within the urban realm A few years ago,rainbow flags peppered every major street in my hometown, the secondary city of Kannur in Kerala. While metropolises are acclimatising to and moving towards openly supporting public representations of Pride, small towns queer narratives operate under invisibility cloaks, and hence, this public display seemed unimaginable. The f ..read more

Photo Credit: Sourav Karmakar (Top 8 shortlist, Photo/Illustration Competition)   Honourable Mention: “Re:Imagine, Re-Design, Re-Claim” Essay  Competition for #UrbanOctober2021 Theme: Beyond the Binary: Queer interactions within the urban realm Since birth, we are conditioned to view the world through a very binary lens of gender such as male/masculine/man and female/feminine/woman. In terms of sexuality the norm is always ‘heterosexuality’ with the other perceived opposite discrete end point being homosexuality. Thus, our sense of Self, our preferences, aspirations, values, emotions ..read more

Theme: Mitigating Migration – Impact of Resettlement on Gendered Bodies Within the context of India, where the ‘migrant worker’ is a wide-spread phenomenon, the migrant woman is a citizen who is an integral component of the urban machine, but an anonymous newcomer. Illustration 1 observes women who have a similar story to the migrant woman – who engages in paid work to support her family and undertakes all domestic responsibilities, which often follow her into the public realm. How does she navigate the city then? The study (conducted in the rural-urban bioregion of Auroville, South India) in ..read more

Essay Competition for #UrbanOctober2021 Theme: Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience: A Gendered Perspective Garmi ka Mausam May ka aa pahuncha hai mahina Bahaa choti se edi tak pasina Baje baara to suraj sar pe aaya Hua pairon tale poshida saaya Chali luu aur tadaqe ki padi dhuup Lapat hai aag ki goya kadi dhuup Zamin hai ya koi jalta tava hai Koi shola hai ya pachhua hava hai Dar-o-divar hain garmi se tapte Bani-adam hain machhli se tadapte Parinde ud ke hain paani pe girte Charinde bhi hain ghabrae se phirte Darinde chhup gae hain jhadiyon men Magar duube pade hain khadiyon men Na puchho k ..read more

First Prize: “Re:Imagine, Re-Design, Re-Claim” Essay Competition for #UrbanOctober2021 Honourable Mention, Photo/Illustration Competition Theme: Mitigating Migration: Impact of Resettlement on Gendered Bodies Sense of belonging refers to a feeling of being accepted which, in a public space creates a feeling of agency or ownership of that space. Physically, this concept is directly dependent on the range of access to the space wherein familiarity plays a major role. Gendered bodies thereby differently use spaces that are alien to them. This was evident in the study of low-income women vendors b ..read more